Day of the Kamikaze Teachers' Guide

Day of the Kamikaze DVD

The Sinking of USS Princeton DVD

Antiaircraft

On March 1, 1942, a US Navy PBO Ventura sank U-656 off the Canadian coast. For three critical months, the United States had no success against the U-boats, while the East Coast was increasingly unsafe for American ships.

The mainstay of the German bombers was the Heinkel He-111, a two-engined, medium range bomber that carried roughly 5,000 pounds of ordinance. It was a level bomber designed for attacking tactical targets as part of a Blitzkrieg campaign, sort of flying artillery. Its payload was not heavy enough nor its range long enough for sustained operations against civilian targets.

World War I had seen some air raids over England and Germany, but the technology was not yet available to wreak total havoc on the civilian population. The very idea of targeting a civilian population in a time of war was anathema to most of the worlds leaders.